


Dragon Doll

by phoenixreal



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Guild, Dolls, Extremely Dubious Consent, Gang Rape, M/M, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Paralysis, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Short, Smutty, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-07 13:28:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsu goes missing and no one can find him. Almost three months later, Gray gets invited to a presentation of a gift, and find himself presented with Natsu, but he's not the same, he's been cursed with a forbidden magic that has left him awake and aware inside a body that is nothing more than a doll to be manipulated by anyone on the outside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lost and Found

* * *

 

“Happy?” Natsu called.  Where had that stupid flying cat got himself off to this time, he thought, running a hand through his pink hair.  It was breakfast time already…

He went into the living room and smelled something off.

“Who’s there?” he asked, whipping around, fire already accumulating around one fist.

“Daddy, he’s so cute!” a child’s voice said from somewhere.

Natsu couldn’t see anyone.  “Yes, daddy, him, him!  We could have fun with him…and so could you!” another, a boy’s voice this time.

“Are you sure?” a male voice.  Natsu was desperately trying to locate any of them but their smell and the voices were coming from everywhere and the room was starting to shrink and dim. 

“Yes, daddy, he’s a fire mage, we can have so much fun setting stuff on fire with him…” the girl giggled.

“What, what are you talkin…about…” he said, his head starting to spin.  He started stumbling to the side.  “Ah, what…what did ya do…” he mumbled.

“And daddy, he looks so adorable…for you…  You always like the boys better, don’t you daddy?” the little boy added.

“How can I resist either of you, little loves?” the male voice said and Natsu felt the world completely close in on him all at once.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Natsu awoke to find his hands shackled above him.  He glanced around groggily and saw nothing but an empty room.  He looked up to see two shackles with magical circles inscribed on them, and he couldn’t feel connection to his magic.  Some sort of magic dampening.  He supposed it made sense.  To catch a mage off guard was rare, but to keep him off guard was even harder.  It seemed that these guys had experience in capturing mages.  He swallowed hard.  Great.  Instead he started tugging on the shackles until his wrists were sore.  He groaned.  This wasn’t working.

 “Ah, welcome back to the waking world, salamander,” the creepy grown up voice said and he looked up to see a tall, thin man with black hair.

“Why am I here? What do you want?  When my guild finds out…” he groused, pulling forward toward the man in front of him.

A grin split his face.  Ugh, Natsu thought.  Just as creepy as I thought.  He moved forward and grabbed Natsu by the chin, forcing him to look up into his face.

“See, my lovely children love to play with dolls.  But…they like real ones.  For the last couple hundred years I’ve found them mages of great power with unique capabilities.  I thought of that ice mage you have around all the time…but my lovelies thought you were cuter with your pretty pink hair,” he said, reaching up with his other hand and petting his hair.

“Fuck you and your kids,” Natsu spat, making a face born of sheer fury.

The man smiled.  “Oh, my won’t it be fun to cage you, little beast.  I’ve never had a dragon slayer before.  Oh, of course, the added bonus to making a doll for my two lovelies is that I get to partake in the…more adult aspect of having such a completely helpless and willing person around.”

 “You bastard, when Fairy Tail finds out…” Natsu said, trying to pull his head away from the man currently petting it in a very familiar manner the dragon slayer didn’t like one bit.

 “Fairy Tail has been searching all day for you so far.  And they seem very determined.  But it won’t help.  You simply vanished from your room this morning, and you won’t be seen again.  That is until we’ve broken you and dump your body before we leave Magnolia,” he said, running a finger down Natsu’s face, and then grinning.  “I’m afraid our dolls don’t last more than a week or two, which is why we have to replace them.  But the stronger the mage, the longer they last.  So we’ll see, maybe a month for you, salamander.”

Behind him the two twins appeared.  “Daddy, are we ready?”

He looked down and smiled at him.  “Yes, go get the tools for the ritual, we’ll perform it under the new moon like always, loves.  Before then, I’m going to give the salamander a taste of what life is going to be like for him until we wear his poor body out.”

The girl giggled.  “Daddy, you just wanna hear him scream a little before we put the curse on him, and you can’t hear it anymore.”

He gave the girl a wink.  “Well, that’s okay, daddy,” the boy piped in.  “I don’t think you’ve really liked one of our dolls so much before!  Just don’t break him before we get to play our games with him!”

They skipped up a set of stairs and out of the room, leaving Natsu hanging by his wrists and the creepy cloaked guy.  He looked Natsu up and down.

 “Yes, usually I take my pleasure from them after they can’t resist, but you, salamander…there’s something about you that makes me want to do things…very horrible things…to you while you are still able to resist me,” he said, grabbing the scarf roughly.

Natsu’s eyes blazed despite the magic suppressors.  “Touch that and I’ll fucking kill you.”

He smiled. “Oh, my, we hit a nerve?  I guess I’ll make you a deal.  I do what I want now, and I’ll take your little scarf here, fold it up and then when we’re done, I’ll tie it back on you, whether your alive or dead.  Of course, I don’t expect you to be quiet or not resist, but just as a little reward for being a good little doll for us.”

Natsu could do little to resist as he unwrapped the scarf and folded it, placing it on a shelf to the side.  Then he stripped him of the rest of his clothing.  The man stared at him.  “Yes, what a good little doll you’ll be.”

He opened a closet to the side that Natsu hadn’t noticed.  He couldn’t see what was inside, but the man brought out a long thin thing with a pad of leather at the end.  He bent it, showing Natsu that it was flexible.  Then he came over and slapped him hard on the back with it.  The cracking sound made him gasp more than the sting but he shook his head, gritting teeth and refusing to make a sound.  Then he proceeded to work over his back and legs in short order, and by the end, Natsu was weeping but refused to scream.  Refused.  No matter how much it hurt, he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

 “Good, good, stamina.  That will help you, make you less likely to break quickly.  But I tire of this.  And the new moon will be risen soon, and you’ll be drug to my circle then, so let’s finish what I’ve started, shall we?” he said, dropping his own robes from his shoulders and Natsu started to fight the bindings again, this time enough that blood began to seep down his forearms.

 “Fuck you, get away from me, you bastard…” he said as he moved behind him and gripped his hips in an ironlike vice.

He didn’t say anything else and Natsu thought for a moment he was just going to stand there until he felt his hands move and lift his toes off the ground and a stabbing pain shot through him as he entered his body with no warning.  Now the dragon slayer did scream.  It was impossible to stop the sounds as tears began to fall from his eyes fast.  If the pain of being beaten was bad, this was like hell.  When he was done, he left Natsu hanging there, his legs unable to support him at the moment.

He watched as he went to middle of the wide room and began muttering until a huge magical circle began to glow on the ground under him.  Soon enough the two “children” came down and handed him some things.  A few moments passed and he grabbed the chain holding Natsu up and drug him to the middle of the circle, dropping him.  To his horror, he was completely frozen in place once there.  The shackles were removed and the man began to chant as he circled him.

There was a thick sound and the world shuttered and he felt something lodge itself in his mind, pressing him back and he was no longer in control.  He couldn’t even breathe.  Finally, the glow faded, and his lungs were starving for breath.

 “Breathe freely,” the man’s voice whispered.  “All automatic functions as normal.  Food intake allowed, drink intake allowed.  Complete compliance.  Physical instruction, no verbal instruction.”

The two children ran forward and giggled together, and proceeded to move Natsu’s arms up and down, and to his horror they stayed wherever they were put.  He screamed and screamed but nothing came out of his mouth.  He was completely, and totally locked into his mind.  His body was stood and led by the two, and he found himself in a true hell for the next two and a half months. 

The two kids would dress him and manipulate him for most the day.  They’d have him set things on fire, and more than once he cringed, knowing that there was a possibility his guild mates would associate the fires with him.  He hoped not.  He was fed about once every few days, seemingly when they remembered if their doll was to stay alive he had to eat.  From conversations about it, he gathered more than one had died from not being fed.  Water was a little better, about once a day he would get water, but it did nothing to help the constant dehydration he was feeling.  His hunger faded after the first couple weeks, though.  He felt weak all the time, but it didn’t matter because his body did as it was told by his little masters.

Then, their “daddy” would lead him away, reminding them to be good and get to bed.  He would be taken and bathed if he was lucky, which he generally wasn’t lucky, and then put to bed, his eyes closed and then if he was lucky, really lucky, the bed beside him would dip and he would know peace until morning.

But Natsu was rarely lucky.  Most nights his body would be positioned in whatever way would please the man who had put him in this position.  He had some more command over him that the two children didn’t.  Where they could not verbally command him, this man could easily utilize some verbal commands.  Of course, they weren’t the kind Natsu wanted in any way to respond to.

He forced him into pleasures that he didn’t want, screaming and railing against the traitorous body he once owned.  He was quickly realizing that this body wasn’t his anymore.  He was disgusted with that part, where he would actually enjoy something, and thankfully, his body was incapable of making embarrassing acknowledgements other than being wracked with orgasms that he wanted to will back into non-existence.  The man took great pleasure when he forced it from him, commenting on what a good doll he was, the best they’d had.  He preferred the pain of the things that he would do to him over that.  And pain was had because it seemed he took great pleasure in sadist acts on a body that had no way to resist.

After the first month, he stopped screaming and fighting against the seal that held him back.  His voice would have been gone if he’d been able to use it.  It was useless and it tired him out.  Not that rest ever really came to him.  Then came the day that everything changed.

He had yet to know the name of the man who kept him, and the children he knew as Wan and Win, the boy and girl respectively, but the only thing that the man was called was Daddy.  He wondered if Daddy spent special time with his children at first, but then realized that that’s why he wanted someone in the state of a doll.  He was disgusted by that fact when he told him one night after he was done with him.  The dolls kept him from raping his own children.  Natsu at least felt some happiness that what he was going through at least did some good and kept the two children safe from this perverted creature.

It seemed the strange man had become quite attached to Natsu though, and as he lay with him, bringing Natsu to completion while he look forward to riding his own pleasure out afterward he made a strange request in his ear, to call out his name when he came.  Natsu quietly screamed at the indignity of the whole situation, and finally, the moment washed over him, and what slipped form his lips was not what the man over him was wanting to hear.  It was barely above a whisper, but his body complied to the request, as the breathy word escaped his lips… 

“Gray…”

The effect was immediate, anger boiling up into the man who quickly became violent with him, sending shocks of pain through him that he hadn’t felt since the first day he’d been with him.  He wanted to writhe in the agony of it as he was shoved down onto the bed.  His frustration was taken out on him as he was beaten with several of his favorite implements, crops, whips, and left a complete bleeding mess on the bed.  He was left there for a while, then he returned and ran healing salve over the worst of the rips in his flesh and then sat him on the floor for the night, refusing to close his eyes.  If he’d been able to weep he would have done so that night.

The next week saw similar nightly treatment, a violent night followed by a healing salve, but he wasn’t permitted a bath and not permitted to leave the room.  The children were told he was worn out and they were going to return him.  Natsu’s heart sored at the thought despite the nightly tortures.  Was he really going home?  Back to Fairy Tail?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Natsu missing was an odd thing.  He was always all over the place and fighting with Gray, Gajeel, anyone.  He hadn’t taken a mission, so they knew he should be there.  But he wasn’t.  He wasn’t anywhere.  He wasn’t home, not at Lucy’s place, and even the Master was at a loss.  By the end of the week, the guild was worried.  By the end of the month, Erza, Gray, Lucy and Happy were more than worried.  They’d searched Magnolia from top to bottom and no one had any clue.  As near as they could tell, the day he’d gone missing, he simply vanished from his room.  They had a hard time with the idea someone had kidnapped the fire brained dragon slayer.  If someone had tried, Magnolia should have been missing a huge chunk of the city.  And he would never leave his _nakama_.  That just wasn’t Natsu’s way.

By the end of two months, they were wondering if he was even alive.  A dark feeling had settled over the entire guild and even Gajeel had taken to moping and drinking with the morose Elfman.  They’d even contacted the other guilds to see if they’d heard anything, but to no avail.  No one had seen the pink haired idiot.  There simply was no trace no matter what they did.  Lavi had pored over her books and found locator spells and they worked, but nothing seemed to help.  Everything she did indicated he was simply not there.  Not anywhere.

Around the middle of the third month, a letter arrived at the guild.  No one saw it arrive and no one knew who had brought it.  It was addressed to Gray Fullbuster.  He picked it up at the bar and slid his finger under the envelope.  Inside was a fancy invitation to a location in Magnolia.  It was addressed to Gray, but said to bring guests with him.  It said it was a presentation ceremony.  They decided the best bet was to go and find out what this was about.  They left Happy at the guild (with Natsu gone he spent most his time sulking anyway) and headed to the address and found it to be some sort of abandoned house.  The door was open, though, with a large banner reading “Welcome Fairy Tail”.  Light spilled from inside.

Cautiously they entered and found themselves in a large open room with a huge chair in the center covered with a black blanket.  There was a red bow sitting askew on top of it.  A chuckle resounded in the room.

 “You came!  What good little mages!” a voice from the shadows said and what looked like a little girl stepped out of the shadows.  On the other side a little boy, almost identical to the girl except in gender also stepped out of the shadows.  Both wore sailor outfits, the boy in shorts, and the girl in a skirt.  Both were almost white in skin tone with black hair cut to their chin line.  Piercing blue eyes were set in their cherub like faces.

 “Who are you and what is this?” Gray asked, looking for other people in the room.  He felt at least one other presence.

_Natsu held his breath, well he would have if he had any control over his own body at all._

 “Well, I figured we’d return what we borrowed, so we thought we’d present it to you as a gift!” the boy said with a wide grin.  “A thank you for letting us have such a lovely toy!  If I were you, I’d never let this toy go, it was so special!”

_Natsu wanted to cry out, scream that he was under here, just please look._

The girl moved forward and soon they both stood in front of the chair and smiled at each other.  “Daddy was so good to us and got us this wonderful toy!  But we’re moving on now, so we’ll find a new toy.  We were getting bored with this one anyway,” she said with a wide grin.  “They wear out so fast.”

Behind them, a man seemed to melt out of the shadows.  “Children, we must go soon.  Finish the little game so we can be on the way.”

Gray stepped back, recognizing the mark of a dark guild on the man’s arm.  Erza and Lucy tensed beside him.  “Who are you?”

_Gray again, making Natsu’s heart rise.  Why was he suddenly so happy that Gray was here?_

The man ignored him completely.  “Your friends don’t seem to be in the mood to play.  Leave your toy and we’ll leave them be.  It takes so long to make a new one for you, after all, though I had far more fun this time than I have before, this toy lasted so much longer, and didn’t really break before we were done.  We’ve never had that happen before.” He said, and the two sailor clad children skipped to him, taking his hand and then they were simply gone.

The three remaining in the room were frozen for a moment and Gray finally stepped forward, moving slowly toward the chair.  It was the only thing in the room.  Erza and Lucy followed slowly.  Gray reached out and tugged the black cover downward and all three uttered a gasp.

 “Natsu!” Lucy cried and they all stood completely still.

It was their friend, but it wasn’t.  He looked dead and lifeless, but they could detect the slight rise and fall of his chest.  His eyes were open and unblinking, wide and dilated.  He had on his scarf, but otherwise he was dressed in a child-like sailor outfit like the two children had been wearing.  It was a long sleeved white shirt with a blue tie and a pair of loose white pants.  He was shoeless, and his scarf was tied around his neck.  His arms were lax at his sides and sat slumped into the back of the chair.

Erza moved forward and shook him.  He simply moved forward with her shake and remained in the position she stopped, leaning forward a slight bit, his head tilted backward from the force of the shake.  He finally blinked, but that was all.

_Natsu felt a shock of anxiety at the touch, even if it was his friend and wanted to get away from it but he couldn’t.  Still he couldn’t even shake off a simple gentle touch from someone he trusted with his life.  She had pulled him slightly forward and he remained, frustrated now because his head had tilted back and he was staring up at the ceiling._

 “What the hell…” Gray said and shook him again, receiving a similar reaction.  He reached out and lifted his arm and found that wherever he put it, it stayed in place, like he was some sort of marionette.

Lucy shook her head. “We’ve got to get him to the guild, maybe the master can figure out what is wrong with him…”

Gray nodded and before the others could blink had swept him up in a carry, Natsu’s body pliant and unresisting, his head lolling back, eyes open and still blank. The trip to the guild took way too long and Erza and Lucy ran in before Gray. 

“Master!” Erza called.  “We need help!”


	2. Lost Dragon Soul

Makarov looked up from the bar as Gray entered and everyone was staring at the still and quiet Natsu in his arms.  No one moved for a long moment as the guild master went to see what the condition was.  Gray kneeled and sat Natsu down easily.  He simply stayed in the position he sat him in, eyes wide and staring off into the distance.  Soon they were surrounded by their guildmates.

 “What happened?” the guild master said, passing a hand in front of his face, getting no reaction at all.

 “We went to where that paper listed, it was an empty building, and these two…kids were there with a creepy guy.  They looked like boy and girl twins and they said that they were returning what they borrowed since they were moving on and their daddy would get them a new toy since they were bored with the current one,” Erza said softly.  “He kept saying that normally they break their toys sooner, but this one had lasted.”

Makarov lifted Natsu’s arm and watched as it stayed in position, hand in the air.  Then he moved fingers and watched as they remained no matter the awkward positioning of them.  He turned his head and saw similar results, craning his neck into different positions and returning it to the front.

 “He’s a doll…” he whispered softly.

 “What?” Gray asked, staring at the dragon slayer.

 “I haven’t seen this is a long time…its forbidden magic…” he said.

Lucy fiddled nervously with the keys at her hip.  “Master, can you reverse it?  It is magic, right?”

 “Take him upstairs, get him in a bed, and I’ll see if there’s anything I can come up with.  I’ve never heard of it being reversed.  It takes someone and turns them into a living doll.  No will, no thought, just a body that can be manipulated and all the while the consciousness is aware, completely aware, and is trapped by a seal.  So Natsu is in there, watching, listening, and feeling everything around him.  He simply can’t do anything about it,” he said, his mind spinning searching for something, anything that might help with this terrible situation.

_The guild master said the thing Natsu didn’t want to hear.  He didn’t know how to reverse it.  But his heart leapt when he told them that Natsu could see, hear and feel everything around him.  They would at least know that!  He would have wept with gratitude that he wouldn’t be locked in a bed forever, everyone thinking him completely brain dead._

Gray scooped him up and headed up the stairs and put him down, moving each body part as carefully as he could until he was under the cover and staring up at the ceiling.  He looked back at Erza and Lucy.

 “What should we do?  If the master is right and he can still hear, see and hear, then…shouldn’t we like, talk to him or something?” he said looking at the others.

 “I think you’re right,” Lucy said.  “I’ll get Happy.”

Erza and Gray sat beside him and waited until Makarov came in and jumped up onto the end of the bed to look at Natsu.  He looked at Gray.  Lucy had returned and Happy fluttered in to sit by Natsu’s head.

 “Tilt his head over here so he can see me,” he said.

Gray reached up until he thought Natsu’s face was at least mostly facing the master.  “Natsu, I know you can hear and see me, and I’m working on a way to break this seal that was put on you.  I don’t know who did this, or why, but we’re going to try.  From what I’ve found out, it is a permanent seal.  It isn’t really a spell, it’s a curse, but either way, we’ll find a way.  I won’t let you stay like this, I promise, Natsu.”

He sighed.  “Maybe get him out of that ridiculous outfit and into something he would actually wear.  He’s going to need us to do everything for him.  Draw him a bath and get him changed, please Gray, I’m going to get with Lavi and see if we can find out anything.  I know he’d rather have you help him than the girls.  I’ll have one of them go get some of his clothes, then I’ll return to see how he’s doing.”

Everyone left so Gray could do as the master had asked.  Gray nodded and wondered if he was going to carry him everywhere.  So, he figured why not see if he could be led.  He pulled him up to his feet and to his happiness when he pulled forward, he walked, not very smoothly, but walked nonetheless.  That was a load off.  He led him into the bathroom and stood him by the door as he drew a bath.  He glanced down and wondered just when the hell he’d lost his shirt and pants.  He sighed.  Oh well, he would have to get into the bath with Natsu anyway. 

_Natsu would have blushed.  Gray was going to undress him and then he’d see.  He didn’t want him to see…not at all.  But he had no choice as he was walked into the bathroom.  Natsu was amused when Gray moved in front of him to see he was in his boxers, somewhere between the other room and here he’d lost his shirt and pants.  He started to undo his scarf and Natsu heard the gasp and felt the fingers tracing what he knew must be marks around his neck.  The man had been ruthless the night before, knowing that he was going back to Fairy Tail the next day.  He’d made sure to hurt him as much as he could._

He turned back to Natsu, unwinding his scarf slowly and then wincing.  His neck was covered in bruises…that looked like…  Fuck, Gray thought, putting the scarf aside.  Those weren’t bruises.

The shirt was a white sailor shirt with long sleeves and a blue neck tie that buttoned down the front.  He unbuttoned it and bit his lip.  He seriously wondered if his friend had eaten anything the entire time he was gone.  His ribs stuck out painfully, and there were bruises and what looked like scratches in varying degrees of healing across his stomach and back.

 _Natsu knew he was pale and dirty as well, he hadn’t bathed in the last two weeks.  There were probably welts from the crop, and he knew there were scratches from the last week.  He’d quit healing him as well, as though he wanted to show off his torture to his guild mates._  

 “Dammit Natsu, what the hell did they do to you…” he said softly.

_Natsu wanted him to stop looking and to tell him he wouldn’t stay near him if he knew what had happened to him._

There was a knock at the doorway and he called for them to come in, looking over Natsu and looked up to see Master Makarov standing there frowning as he looked over his guild member.  He laid the clothes down on the counter and moved up to look at the dragon slayer.  Gray had him standing beside the tub, and he reached over to turn the water off, the water much warmer than Gray liked it.  He glanced at Makarov and knew the guild master wasn’t about to leave yet. 

 “Sorry, Natsu,” Gray muttered and unbuttoned the loose white pants that he had on and closed his eyes.

He shifted him into the water as quickly as he could.  Makarov was gone when he looked back up, sitting him in the hot water.  He set about scrubbing him, ignoring the heat on his hands.  He was covered in grime and dirt underneath his clothes, as though he had only been dressed for the presentation.  The only places he was clean were his face and hands.  There were deep, disturbing bruises on his back and hips, along with more spots that looked like bites.  Finally, he was done, the water nearly black from the dirt, and he pulled him out, drying him and then put him into his own clothes, but left his upper body free, because it was just easier.  He picked up his scarf though and wrapped it around his neck, patting his shoulders.

 “Natsu, don’t worry, you’re safe again, okay?  We’re not going anywhere.”

Thus, began the strange Fairy Tail vigil.  Each day someone would come in and sit with Natsu, feeding him breakfast, then talking with him about anything and everything, then someone would bring him lunch and take over.  Then dinner would bring someone else to talk to him.  Sometimes they’d bring him magazines and books to show him and read to him.  At night, someone had to actually close his eyes and even then they weren’t entirely sure if he could actually sleep.  Someone would sit overnight with him in case of changes.

Gray, though, became his primary caretaker, handling his baths and his grooming, keeping his hair cut and his clothes fresh.  He spent at least one shift a day with him, and actually spent most nights there.  So much that Erza and Lucy began leaving him to take missions alone, knowing that he wanted to be with Natsu in case he were to come into consciousness.  Happy was a constant, quiet companion.  After about a month, most of the bruising had gone away and Gray decided to take Natsu out for walks once a day.

He’d lead him by the hand, Happy fluttering behind them.  Gray would talk to him the entire way, leading him by the upper arm when he wanted him to walk even with him.  It was odd at first, and they got all kinds of stares until they realized who they were, and then the whispered conversations started.  Gray didn’t care.  He just wanted Natsu to get out of the guild hall for a while.

Another month had gone by, with only a few incidents in town where someone tried to get Natsu away from him.  He had to freeze a couple assholes one day that started taunting them about the great dragon slayer being unable to do anything if they wanted to have a little fun with him.  Gray was incensed and led Natsu right back to the Guildhall. 

Two months and they had found no way to reverse the curse.  Though, strangely, Gray didn’t mind.  Eventually, he asked if he could just let Natsu stay with him instead of the Guild.  He explained it just made sense since he cared for him most of the time and he was tired of sleeping in the damn chairs.  With a hidden grin, the master agreed a home might be better than the infirmary.  So, it was that Gray had a new houseguest.  He had a huge bed already, so he didn’t see any reason why Natsu just couldn’t sleep there.  It wasn’t like he was going to get up and molest him while he was asleep.

Gray glanced at Natsu and reddened at the thought.  What?  Why would he think that?  He shook the thought of such a silly thing out of his head. He’d never thought of Natsu that way.  Why should he start now when he was incapacitated…?

It was almost another month of the same routines, taking Natsu to the guild in the morning to sit at a table while the others buzzed around him and talked to him, showed him things and everyone was seriously wondering if he was going to be like this for the rest of his life.  Then, he’d take him home, maybe on a walk first, then give him dinner and a bath, and tuck him in for the night, following him into sleep quickly.

_Natsu, though he couldn’t really say he enjoyed it, but he was much happier.  The others came and talked to him every day, he got to eat three meals and though at first he couldn’t eat much, eventually, he could eat a normal meal.  He even had someone close his eyes at night which was delightful.  Sleeping with eyes open was not easy, though he’d managed when exhaustion had taken him.  It felt good especially when he started going outside.  He heard the rude remarks and there was more than one occasion that Gray got into a fight because someone had grabbed him and started to lead him away, whispering things to him that they were going to do to him once they got him away from Gray.  They had no idea that nothing they could conceive of would be worse than what had already been done to him and worse._

_Staying with Gray was even better, and Natsu wondered why he was doing it.  Why would Gray be letting him stay in his bed, even?  It was so strange, but was there a chance that Gray returned the fascination Natsu had with him?  Natsu and him had fought so much and he loved teasing the ice mage but the fire and ice thing seemed to be the thing that endlessly put them at odds.  But did it really?  When they worked together, there was nothing they didn’t seem to be able to accomplish.  Maybe when he got out of this stupid curse he could tell him.  He could tell him that it was Gray he pictured behind his eyes when he was given release to his shameful pleasures, because if it had to be someone, he wanted it to be Gray._

Then one day, he headed to the Guildhall with him and sat him down.  Lavi offered to do breakfast duty and he nodded thankfully.  He spotted the master who was waving him over to another table.

 “Gray, I think we may have found something.  But there’s one problem.”

 “What is it?” he asked.

Makarov sighed.  “The results are going to depend on Natsu himself.  He’s going to have to want to come out.”

Gray frowned.  “Why in the world wouldn’t he want to come out?”

 “You saw his condition when he came in.  You and I both know what was done to him, and it was far more than humiliation of being forced to play dress up with two sadistic twin brats.  That man was with a dark guild, and that is reason enough,” Makarov said, sighing deeply.

Gray nodded, exhaling.  “I know.  What do we do but try?”

 “Bring him upstairs.  Lavi and I discovered a very old curse breaker, and we can hope it works.  Even if it does, I’m afraid recovery is going to be long.  I doubt he’ll be back to normal as soon as the seal is broken.”

Gray went down, finding Natsu already fed and Lavi chattering brightly beside him as his eyes stared vacantly into space.  He swallowed.  It must be torture, Gray thought.  To be completely locked inside yourself unable to do anything for yourself.  He sighed and pulled him up, and led him up the stairs to the office where Makarov was waiting.  Gray stood back as he performed a complex ritual that seemed to take forever.  Finally, there was a flash and there was a thunderous crash.  When he looked back, Natsu’s head was laid back on the chair instead of being held up like had left him.  His heart leaped.  But when he moved and looked, his eyes were vacant as ever.  He sighed.

 “It may have worked fine, but it will take time for the seal to break and fade.  Until then, keep talking and keep encouraging him to come back to us.  His will to come back will determine the results,” Makarov said, obviously exhausted by the effort.

Gray led him back downstairs and watched carefully for any signs of change.  Once he thought his eyes moved on their own for a second.  But it could have been his hopeful imagination.  At the end of the day, he led him back to what had become their home now.  His Natsu had been gone so long now.  Wait?  His Natsu?  The hell…

Gray finished the bath they shared, as usual.  He washed the pink hair gently, then his own raven hair.  He dried them both off and steered him into the bedroom, putting a pair of black shorts on him and sat him down.  He stopped, looking at Natsu.  Did he just feel resistance?  He pushed on him again, and though his body leaned back, he was sure he felt resistance at being pushed down on the bed.  He shook his head and put his own shorts on and lay down in the bed, covering both of them up and closing Natsu’s eyes.

Morning came and he looked to find Natsu had moved, actually moved, and had one arm draped over Gray’s shoulder, and had rolled to his side.  Gray jumped up, knocking the arm off and rolled Natsu over to his back and pushed his eyelids open.  He was giddy at the slight feeling of movement under his fingers.

_Eventually, he felt the loosening of the coils holding him in place, and he slept deeper than he remembered, so it was a surprise when he felt his arm falling off something.   He rolled him over and gently pushed the eyelids open and Natsu couldn’t have been happier to see the dark-haired mage’s face._

_The next moments filled Natsu with something indescribable._

“Natsu!” he said, staring at him.  “Come on, Natsu, come out of it.  You’ve been locked in there for far too long now.  I really want you to come back, I miss you, flame brain,” he said softly.

Then, to his own surprise he leaned down and laid a soft kiss on the dragonslayer’s lips.  He sat up suddenly and stared.  Did he really just do that?  “Natsu…come on.  I think I really need you, okay?  I know it is so stupid, you hate me, but there’s something about you, every time we fight I feel your passion, the heat, and I want it for myself, so come back, and we’ll work through what happened together.  I know they hurt you.  I’ve seen everything, Natsu, and I want you to know I don’t care.  Just come back.  I know you probably like Lucy and all, I don’t even know if you like guys…but if you do…I think I could handle you just fine.”  Since when did Gray even like guys?

He sighed and laid down again, running his hands over the body beside him.  His weight had come back to normal, and everything indicated his magic was still there, if his mind would just come out.

He laid his head on his chest, feeling the heat roll from the body and hearing the thumping of his heartbeat.  He thought it was a little faster than it had been, but he wasn’t sure.  Then to his complete surprise, he heard something he never thought he would.  It was hoarse and unsure, but he sat up and stared into eyes that were starting to flicker with life.

_Natsu would have cried out as those hands began to caress his torso and then he put his head on Natsu’s chest causing his heart to leap at the touch.  And then his mouth, he could move his mouth just a little and he tried so hard to form the one word that had gotten him both into and out of trouble._

 “Gray?”

* * *


	3. Vespus

Gray nearly fell out of the bed to hear his name on Natsu’s lips.  It was at the same time shocking and incredibly embarrassing since he’d just confessed attraction and feeling for the incapacitated dragon slayer.  But still, the flickering of the light in his eyes was a sure sign that he was indeed somewhere in there, fighting for a chance to come back.

 “Natsu, can you hear me?” he said dumbly.  Of course he could hear him.

His eyes flickered a bit, moving around the room.  Gray grinned.  “Come on, let’s get you dressed and go tell the others at the guild!”

Before long he was up and out with the dragon slayer behind him, moving as quickly as he could.  Shortly after entering the room, he’d lost his shirt again, and Natsu swore he never saw him move.  His eyes were beginning to loosen up, and he could flick them a little in any direction.  It was brief, and they would snap back to the center after a moment, but it was something.

 “Erza!  Lucy!” Gray called, dropping Natsu’s hand, missing the flinch in his fingertips.

Soon enough, the redheaded woman and the blond came around to see Gray grinning.  “It worked!  What Makarov did yesterday, it worked!  He managed to crack the seal!”

Lucy and Erza both looked at the seemingly still Natsu and frowned at Gray.  “Gray, are you imagining things?” Erza commented.

 “No, no, look, his eyes…” he said confidently, putting hands on his hips with a grin.

Natsu was very uncomfortable with two faces so close to his but it wasn’t like he could actually move away.  Okay, they’d move if he moved his eyes.  He concentrated to bridge that gap, to send something out past the crack in the seal that stood in his way.  He forced it through the small crack and felt it give a little.  His eyes flicked to the left then back.  He was exhausted from the effort though, wanting nothing more than to fall to his knees, but that ability wasn’t allowed to him.

Erza and Lucy both saw it and gasped with a grin.   “Amazing, Natsu!  Great!” Lucy said and hugged him.  He wanted to push her away.  He didn’t want to be touched at all.  He just wanted her to leave him alone, all of them, he… his eyes flicked to Gray and his smiling face and an ache formed.  He cared?

The petite guild master came up then and was listening as Gray told him what had happened, Erza and Lucy confirming what they’d seen.  He smiled and then suggested they get someone to go in and do a mind walk to see the state of the seal since the master couldn’t handle that kind of magic.  He said he’d contact the only person he knew that could handle this. Porlyusica.  After a bit, Natsu was escorted upstairs under the watchful eyes of his team. 

Eventually, the human despising woman came in, grumbling under her breath and then set eyes to Natsu.  She glanced at Makarov and frowned.

 “You were serious, weren’t you?” she said.

The guild master nodded.  “When am I not,” he huffed.

Porlyusica looked him over, doing a medical exam and then frowned.  “Why didn’t you call me when he got here?  There are some obvious major injuries that have healed.”

They glanced back at each other.  “We thought it was a simple curse to break, he didn’t show any signs of serious injury,” Gray offered.

The woman rolled her eyes and sighed.  “And how could you tell, exactly?  It isn’t like he could admit to being in pain, now could he?  With this curse, a person can walk and move on broken bones and in absolute exhaustion.  As soon as you contacted me, I did my own research.  I take it you figured out that you had to feed him and walk him around so his limbs didn’t atrophy.  How long has it been?”

Gray sighed.  “We’ve had him for three months, and he was missing almost another three, so we really don’t know when it was put on him...”

Porlyusica tipped Natsu’s head up and looked at his eyes.  He tried really hard to move them and succeeded in a small movement.  If she hadn’t been looking directly into them, she would have missed it.  She nodded, moving his head back.

 “You’ve managed to crack the seal, but it isn’t broken.  What you’re seeing, your ‘encouraging signs’ are nothing more than his will forcing through the cracks in the seal and every time he does it he’s exhausting himself.  To an extreme degree.” She turned and tilted Natsu’s face up to look at her.  “You must stop forcing yourself right now, Natsu.  If you exhaust yourself completely, there won’t be anything I can do to treat you.  Your body will simply give out.  The fact it hasn’t yet…”

Gray nodded.  “The guy that did this said that they’d never had someone last this long…”

Her head swung away from Natsu.  “What?  You saw the guy?”

Gray glanced at Erza and Lucy.  “Yeah, he handed Natsu over to us.”

Porlyusica frowned and looked at Makarov.  “What did he look like?”

 “He was tall, thin, black hair and really pale.  He had a dark guild’s mark I didn’t recognize on his forearm, and he had these two kids with him, a girl and a boy...” Gray commented.

Porlyusica was digging a paper and pencil from her bag and scribbled a mark on it, one that looked identical to the mark that Gray had seen on man’s arm.   He nodded to her.  “Yeah, that’s it.   You know this guild?”

She held it up to show the Fairy Tail guild master who let out a slow breath.  “I thought they were all dead.”

 “It seems we were wrong.  Didn’t the curse bring anything to mind?” she asked quietly.

He nodded.  “Of course, but how was I to know…”

“You should have known,” she responded curtly.

“Okay, enough, master, what is going on?” Erza said, finally.

Makarov sighed and held up the paper.  “This mark, is a dark guild that we thought had been eradicated long ago…  They went by Vespus, and their leader was a man named Orancha Bladeslow.  Bladeslow was an expert at curse magic, and germane spells.  In fact, most of what is forbidden magic now was practiced in his guild.  He had two children, twins named Win and Wan.  In his desire to make his family last forever, he sacrificed his wife, and made him and his two children freeze in time.  They don’t age, but they aren’t immortal.  Their bodies may be that of children, but they are over a hundred years old by now.  And one of Bladeslow’s hallmark curses was the Empty Doll curse.  This is what was placed on Natsu,” he said sighing.  “I think I failed to admit it, thinking it was some variation on the magic Bladeslow had used, because it was too impossible to think he was alive for one, but also because I’ve seen what this curse does.”

“I don’t understand,” Gray said.  “We know what it does, you told us…”

Makarov shook his head.  “I told you what I saw, what I saw and what it does when Bladeslow does it are two different things.”

Porlyusica spoke up now.  “Think of it this way, Natsu’s mind has been split.  His consciousness, his soul if you want to call it that, is placed in a small corner surrounded by a wall, this seal created by the curse.  Bladeslow will have given instructions at the cursing on what his body was allowed to do on its own, because it can even take away the ability to breathe.  So he would have allowed freedom to breathe, eat when presented food, swallow when presented liquid.  And yes, those things can be taken away if he wants to truly torture the person.  What I’m going to do is spell walk into his mind and see if I can find out what exactly the extent of the curse was and see if he retained control.”

Lucy gasped.  “Retained control?”

“He has the ability to retain a fragment of control even when separated from his dolls.  That worries me the most, because he can still implant a thought into Natsu that his body will obey without his will being able to stop it,” Porlyusica finished and began the complicated set up for the spell to allow her entry into Natsu’s mind.  The only benefit was that there would be no resistance to her intrusion since his mind couldn’t stop her.

Finally, she sat Natsu on the bed and placed both hands on his head, leaning over him and began the complicated spell.

She opened her eyes and was standing in his mindscape.  Despite the weird feeling she knew what she was looking for and found the cracked seal.  It was in the shape of the dark guild’s crest and there was a long crack with energy thrumming behind it.  As she thought.  She ran her hands against the seal and felt the power from it.  Bladeslow himself, she thought, her suspicions confirmed.  Then she searched for the conditions of the spell.  Allowing food, drink, autonomic functions, that was good, but then she tripped over the small part she was looking for.  There it was, the link that had yet to be severed, leaving Bladeslow a way to resume control.  It seemed that Natsu’s strength had impressed him, and he gave him up but kept a link.  Why’d he give him up?

She continued and then moved to delve into Natsu’s memories of the time.  The immediate resistance caused her to pull her hand back.  He didn’t want her to know.  She sighed, pressing harder, knowing that with the seal mostly intact he couldn’t push her away.  Soon, she was drowned in the flood of images and nearly choked on what the poor boy had gone through, and finally to the one that would give her the answer to why he would let Natsu go so easily.  Anger and jealously, she felt pulsing through the memory.  _My name…call my name…_ and the shameful response that left both Natsu and Bladeslow confused, and led to a furious and even more sadistic Bladeslow.  _Gray._

She scrambled back out of the memories and sat back, panting heavily.  “And you wonder why I hate humans,” she said glaring at Makarov, who was avoiding her gaze.

“You knew what he did and you didn’t warn me?  Do you have any idea what it was like walking into that?” she glared harder at the guild master.

“We had suspicions but no way to know,” he said quietly.

“What?” Lucy asked.  “What did he do?”  The fear and trepidation was evident in her voice.  She both did and didn’t want to know.

“What matters now is he’s left a link, and I can’t sever it,” Porlyusica said with a deep frown.  “And if we don’t sever it, he could do anything from have Natsu kill himself to kill someone else, or walk right back to him.”

Gray bit his lip.  “But if he wanted him back, why did he let him go?”

Porlyusica sighed.  “You know, you are an idiot, Gray Fullbuster, if you haven’t figured it out.  His only pleasant recent memories revolve around you taking care of him.  He managed to speak your name of all of them.  And you are the one that made Bladeslow furious enough to leave him behind when he left Magnolia.”

Gray frowned now and shook his head.  “Made him leave him behind?”

Makarov sighed, understanding now.  “Jealousy?  Bladeslow never wore it well.  It doesn’t surprise me.”

“But, what, I don’t…” Gray muttered.

“You know what was done to him, and when told to speak his name, Natsu summoned enough will to use your name and that’s what incited Bladeslow to leave him,” Porlyusica returned. 

Gray was silent, pieces connecting in his mind.  Lucy and Erza were staring at him confused until Erza clapped a hand over her mouth and let out a gasping sob, getting Lucy’s attention and a frown.  “No…he…” she said and Porlyusica nodded at her. 

The medic leaned over and gently closed Natsu’s eyes and patted him.  “You need sleep now, Natsu.  We’ll leave Gray here with you.  Rest, if you can.”

Makarov led the others downstairs leaving Natsu with Gray.  They headed to the library where Levy was busy researching the situation with her amazing glasses.  For several hours they worked and tried to find any way to sever the link and crush the rest of the seal when they heard a yell from upstairs that sounded like Gray, inciting all those in the library to go running to the room, to find Gray leaning over Natsu wrapping towels around his forearms.  The towels were quickly turning red.

Porlyusica pushed him out of the way and started healing his arms, catching a breath once the bleeding had been stopped.  She stood back and looked at the others.  Both of Natsu’s forearms from elbow to wrist were sliced, one arm had a carved out symbol of the Vespus seal, and the other with the grisly message, “He’s still mine.”

“I’ll heal it up, all of it, I won’t leave those scars on him,” Porlyusica said, voice tight, and she set to work. 

“I fell asleep, I mean, like for ten minutes, and then something woke me up, it was the clattering of the knife…” Gray said softly.  “I didn’t think…I mean, his eyes were still closed, how…”

Makarov put a hand to his shoulder.  “Gray, he’s a very sadistic man; he’s doing this to punish you, for being on Natsu’s mind.”

Gray nodded.  “But if I hadn’t fallen asleep…” he said quietly. 

 “We’re going to put a 24 hour guard on him, get me some of the others, we need to make sure there is someone awake at all times with him.  We know now the extent of power he has over Natsu so we need to make sure that he can’t do anything else to him,” Makarov said and left the room.

As Gray watched the bloody wounds disappear, he wondered exactly how far this was going to go, and somehow he thought he was not going to like the answer to that.  He headed home, and he felt the bed was oddly empty now without Natsu beside him.  How strange was that?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

 “Daddy do you miss our dragon doll?” Win, the little girl asked with a bright grin.

Bladeslow smiled.  “I do, my dear.  I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a doll so much.  And he’s still alive which makes him very special.”

Wan sighed and flopped on the dark sofa.  “Well, get him back, then, daddy, if you want him.  You know how, we know you do.  You’d never let a toy like him get away, would you?”

Bladeslow snickered, glancing at the guild mark on his arm.  “No, no I wouldn’t, dears, you know me too well.  How should we do it?  I can’t just have him walk all the way here, it would be rather, suspicious, and I can’t go into their guild hall to get him.  So what should we do?”

 “How about you send Drue and Kala to go get him?” Win said thoughtfully.

A smile broke out on the pale guild master’s features.  “Yes, that would do just fine…draw out his guild mates into a fight, then I’ll walk him from the guild hall into my waiting arms.  Yes, shall we, my dears?”

The three swept out of the room and upstairs where several people were milling about.  He waved at a man with greenish hair and black eyes and a woman with yellow hair and purple eyes that seemed too big for her face.  “Come, I have a dragon doll to retrieve from Fairy Tail, are you interested in a fight?”

Drue, the male, grinned widely.  “I’ve heard there’s another takeover mage there…”

Kala ran a hand through her lemon yellow hair and nodded.  “Yes, yes, I love to try my enchantments out on new victims…”

Bladeslow cast the transportation magic and they landed a little ways from Fairy Tail’s guild hall.  He leaned against a fence to wait as Drue and Kala raced off to have a little fun.  There were the sounds of fighting and he grinned.

Drue and Kala wasted no time engaging Fairy Tail mages, soon fighting off several at the same time.  Gray, who was sitting beside Natsu, was surprised when he sat up, the sounds of the fighting outside reaching through the window at them.

“Natsu!” he called and watched as Natsu simply stood and went to the window to look down, then to Gray’s surprise, he stepped out and jumped down.  Gray leaned out the window and screamed for him but he fell, and he heard the sick crack of a bone as he landed flat on his feet, and kept walking.  Gray zipped through the guild and called for Makarov, not stopping as he skidded out the door and darted through the fighting around him.  A few Icemake shields and leaps put Gray at the edge of the fighting to see Natsu as he stopped in front of a familiar figure. 

“Stop, leave him alone!” Gray yelled, running, just in time to see a grin spread across the pale face.

“Don’t think so, Ice Mage.  Come find him if you dare…” Bladeslow said with a grin and a flash they were gone.  Behind him the din of battle died, apparently the two that had attacked were gone.

Gray ran back to the guild to find Porlyusica and Makarov talking.  “He got him, he jumped out the window, and I know he broke something I heard it snap but he kept walking…”

Porlyusica nodded.  “There is one good thing; we know that Bladeslow can only have one doll at a given time.  He undoubtedly thought Natsu would die, allowing him to take another, and now after three months he’s been unable to do so, so he had to take him back.  I’m afraid this got much more dire, because both those mages were marked with the symbol for his guild.  We’re not taking on one crazy dark mage, but it looks like a whole guild.”

* * *


	4. Terror

The first thing that one realizes when they are not the one in control of their own body is terror.  It can’t be described as anything else.  Watching the body move without the will was something horrible.  And now, here he stood, once more stripped down to nothing, his scarf hanging on a shelf up high and away from anyone’s reach.  The man, he knew his named now was Bladeslow, thanks to his guildmates, was circling him.

“You’ve healed beautifully, love doll,” He commented, running fingers along now smooth skin.  “I must say, this game has merit.  Giving you back, letting them heal you up, then taking you back so I can start all over again…”

Natsu would have shivered had he more than a modicum of control over his body.  He moved around in front of him.  “Yes, I think it is time to punish you for your mistake of calling out someone else’s name to me in the throes of passion.  Yes.”

He turned away and left him staring at the wall.  Soon he heard the opening and closing of the door and the sound of feet, several sets of feet, moving toward him.  A woman with brilliant blue hair moved in front of him, and beside her three men came into view.

“Master, are you sure?  You’ve never let anyone play with your dolls before,” the female purred.

“He wants to be a slut for Fairy Tail, already.  So now we just show him how Vespus enjoys their toys.  Don’t damage him permanently, I’ll be wanting to take him to my own bed after you are finished,” he heard the guildmaster say and Natsu’s blood ran cold.

The hands were everywhere he didn’t want them, and the woman was on her knees coaxing his body into reaction.  He wanted to will it away as she wantonly sucked and licked at him.  One of the men was behind her, doing something Natsu couldn’t see, but from the way her hips bounced and moved he could imagine. 

“Oh, Delia, you’re all wet for the dragon.  You going to ride him while Kato fucks him?” the one behind her, a thin man with black hair, said with a smirk.

She lifted her head off his now hardened arousal and grinned at him.  His head had been tipped down so he could watch her and he wanted to tear his eyes away as he felt the man behind him touching him and forcing fingers inside him.  Soon, he was pulled down into the man’s lap, this Kato, and the woman was coming toward him.  Without warning, Kato hefted him up easily and slammed him down onto his length, sending shooting pain up his spine from the raw entry.  His legs were parted Delia had a view of his body being entered by the man under him.  She licked her lips then straddled him, slamming her wet moisture onto his throbbing cock.  Natsu had never been with a woman, and it was the one thing that hadn’t been taken from him.  And now, that too was gone.

“I’m not sure I like this much,” Kato said, the two bodies on top of him pressing into him and forcing him deeper into the doll than he’d even been.

Delia sighed.  “Something about not hearing him scream…like fuckin’ someone that’s dead, you know…”

The other man snorted.  “Like I care,” he muttered, forcing himself into Natsu’s mouth, eying the sharp canines.  “I don’t think I’d want this one struggling.”

When they’d finished with him, someone he didn’t know drug him to a bath.  He supposed he had to be clean for his master’s pleasures.  He’d been so close, he’d been safe, but in the end even Fairy Tail couldn’t protect him.  So was there any point?  He was stuck like this.  He resolved that this was true hell.  And he would get out of it any way he could.  He’d chip at the crack in the seal enough to get his arm to work long enough to cut his own throat.  It was better to be dead than to live like this. 

He was led to his master’s chambers unclothed and fell into a familiar hell again.  He retreated into his mind and tried to forget the pain.  Though, by now, the throbbing of the broken ankle was almost unbearable.  At least now he wasn’t standing on it.  Perhaps it would heal…but he didn’t know.  He didn’t care.  His body responded, and he knew what it was to have no control so well, but it still sent pangs of regret as he pictured Gray in his mind to try and push away the terror building inside him once again.

Just enough to work his arm, that’s all he needed.  Just enough to cut his own throat or wrist, that’s all…  They never bothered to tie him, there was no need, and they never put anything away from his read, there was no need after all.  So he would chip.  And he would end this misery once and for all.  And save Gray from ever having to deal with him again.  Gray deserved better than what he had become.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Gray was frantic.  And the others really couldn’t understand what was happening with the ice mage.  In fact, he was so frantic he hadn’t bothered to strip yet today.  That was unusual.  They were waiting for Makarov to get done talking to the magic council about the resurgence of Vespus.  For once, they would try and do this the right way before they took it in their own hands.  And Gray couldn’t sit down.  He’d finally got up the guts to manage to let Natsu know that he felt something for the stupid flame brained idiot only to have him taken away again.

“What is wrong with you Gray, I’ve never seen you like this?” Lucy asked.

“I want to get him back, don’t you?” He said glaring at her.  Gajeel beside him snorted. 

“What?” he asked the steel dragon slayer.

“Gray…how long?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

Gray stopped.  “What the fuck are you talking about, Gajeel?” he grumbled.

Gajeel grinned.  “I’m a dragon slayer too; I smell the pheromones you two release.”

This got a confused stare from the other occupants of the room, Erza, Lucy, Happy, Levy, and Juvia.  Gajeel rolled his eyes.  “We’re like dragons.  Natsu is almost to the time for him to mate, he’s a little young, but I’m headed into my time, so he’s gonna trigger his.”

“What happens if he hits that time while he’s captive?” Levy asked, looking at Gajeel seriously.

“Then he’s going to be mated with the first person to fuck him while he’s in that place.  Natsu’s not like me.  I’ve already got my eye on my female mate,” he said, leaving a lingering glance on Levy, causing the girl to blush.  “Natsu needs another male.  And I have a feeling he’s picked one…”

Gray felt the sets of eyes on his back.  He swallowed and turned back to him.  “What…” he began.

“Look, you two have been at each other’s throats forever, and guess what happens when two male dragons mate? They try to tear the fuck outta each other,” Gajeel said, waggling his brow at Levy.  “Males don’t like to be dominated, but some of them, they need it.  So we have the situation where Natsu has picked the strongest male he can, and it happens to be you, because he senses I’ve got my eye on a certain female mage, from the pheromones.” 

Lucy and Erza stared at Gray.  “Gray, is that true? Do you feel that way toward him?” Erza finally asked.

Gray turned around and then flopped into a large chair.  “I don’t know!  I mean, I don’t know what to think.  I really wanted to save him, and then when he was not the same, I…I didn’t know what to do with him, so that’s why I took him to try and get him to come back.  Maybe I knew, I don’t know…”

Makarov walked in then and looked around, giving a frown at what he had obviously missed.  “The council approves our action of attacking to disband Vespus and retrieve Natsu.”

There was a moment of surprised shock.  “They actually approved something _we_ wanted to do?” Erza said shocked.

Makarov nodded.  “I think they were more concerned with Bladeslow’s resurgence than anything else.  I’ve contacted Blue Pegasus and they’ve offered assistance if we want it.  I assured them that we did.”

Gray stood.  “We have to get him back…before…”

Makarov turned and stared at Gray, but Gajeel stood up.  “Master, Natsu’s dragon side is going to kick him into mating soon.  And if we don’t get him away from them, he’s going to end up mated to Bladeslow, and that means he could use the bond to control his magic as well as his body.  He needs to be mated with someone who won’t control him.”

Levy gasped and all eyes turned onto her.  “The dragon mating!” Everyone was quiet.

“I’ve got to do some research, but this might actually break the curse!  I don’t know enough yet, but it’s a powerful magic bond from what I’ve heard, and may be enough to blast the seal from Natsu’s mind!  But only if he mates with his intended,” Levy said, by way of explanation as she ran from the room.

Gajeel nodded.  “She’s right; the release of magic is powerful at the claiming of the dragon’s mate, especially when the dragon is the one being claimed.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Lucy said, dropping back into the seat she’d recently stood from.

Gajeel shrugged.  “I’m not sure.  I’ve never thought about it, I knew I’d have a female mate from the time I hit maturity.  I’m sure Natsu is well aware that he’d have a male mate for just as long.”

Gray turned back frowning.  “What?  He would know that?”

“Of course, he’s a dragon slayer.  He’s got the urges and needs of a dragon.  He’s known, every time we fought, I felt him testing me, just like he tested you each time you fought.  It’s subtle, and no way you’d notice it.  And he probably didn’t even realize that fighting was about testing his potential mates,” he said with a shrug.  “I don’t have to do that because I’m claiming a female.  I am the one who has to prove strength, and nothing else.  Natsu has to find someone that is as strong, if not stronger, than he is, and can contain him if he needs it.”

“Why would he need to be contained?” Erza asked softly.

“The dragon sometimes can become too strong,” he said and looked up as Levy entered the room, her odd glasses askew and a book in hand.

“It will work!  The magic released when a dragon, male or female, is claimed is enough to break any enchantments, curses, or spells currently in effect on both parties.  But if the dragon being claimed is forced, the magic will consume them both completely, killing both parties,” she said, frowning.

Gray paled even more than his pale skin normally was.  “So if we don’t find him, and get him out of there, and this bastard is still using him, and he hits the mating time…”

Levy nodded.  “His fire magic will flare and destroy him and the one trying to claim his body.  His magic won’t allow it to be controlled by another, because Gajeel is right.  The mated dragon’s magic is somewhat bound to their mate, with some degree of control.  I mean, I’m assuming the same is said for dragon slayers, but from what we know, they have the same effects of their dragons.  And fire dragons are very possessive creatures of their mates, passionate toward the ones they love, to be forced into a mating is death to them.  And…” she stopped.  “And I’m afraid that if Natsu breaks the seal before then, he may take his life.  It’s a disgrace to be claimed by any but his mate.  Dragons reject mates that claimed before their mating.”

“What?” Gray asked.  “You mean Natsu, before this, he’d never…”

Levy shook his head.  “His instincts would have ensured he didn’t.  They mate for life...so to be claimed before their mating cycle is a taboo in the dragon world.”

Gray was almost beside himself.  “Then we have to do this, now.  Gajeel, do you know how long we have?”

“I’m hitting my mating within a week or so, so Natsu wouldn’t be far behind me.  He’s been around me enough to have the effects come into him.  He’s about a year too young, but because of my proximity, it will happen, he’s been releasing the pheromones almost as long as I have,” Gajeel explained, eyeing Levy again who grinned at the dragon slayer.

After a while, Lucy summoned Loke, who showed up in his suit with a grin.  She smiled at him.  “Loke, we need help from you and the spirits.  They’ve taken Natsu again,” she said softly.

Loke frowned.  Him and the rest of the celestial spirits had come to love Natsu, mostly because he treated them like equals and not like subservient creatures.  He nodded, looking around at the others and his eyes fell on Gray, looking positively dejected.  He frowned and looked at Lucy who gave him a soft sigh.  He understood.  Gray and Natsu had fought nonstop for so long, it was no surprise.

“I’ll see what we can do.  Are we taking out that guild with this?” he asked.

Lucy nodded. Loke smiled at that.  “Good.  The bastards deserve it for what they’ve already done to Natsu and what they’re doing now.”

The Lion headed out to do some investigating on his own.  The rest of the group sat and waited, Levy casting what she could.  Soon, Porlyusica came in and looked around.

“I think I can track him.  Before he was returned, I used a spell to track the curse, even if I couldn’t track him.  It took some doing, but I think I’ve found out how to get to the general area where he is.  They used transportation magics, but they didn’t go that far, they’re still relatively nearby.  So I say we gather and set out now, before we no longer have a Natsu to save,” she said.

It was agreed, and despite the late hour, soon they were all ready and out the door, following Porlyusica.  Not one member of Fairy Tail wanted to lose Natsu.  And every member of Fairy Tail wanted to bring down Vespus.  Permanently.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tears would have been nice.  He would have cried them openly as he lay on the floor beside the bed now, cold, hollow and utterly alone.  His back and legs were a mass of open, bleeding wounds, and he was relatively sure at least three ribs had been broken, and maybe his jaw.  Strike that, he was relatively sure his jaw was broken.  After he’d been done with him, and pushed unceremoniously onto the floor with a parting kick to his ribs, he would have done anything to curl up on himself, cover his aching ribs, anything.  But that was denied to him as he simply laid on his side now, pain radiating outward to a choking degree.  He was sure one of those ribs was pushing into his lung because it hurt to breathe.

He just wanted Gray.  He was feeling the heat coiling in the dragon, and he knew that if he didn’t get away soon, something very bad would happen.  This idiot didn’t understand dragons or dragon slayers. He had no idea how much Natsu wanted to die at that moment.  His dragon was screaming at him that he was ruined; no mate would claim him like this.  As if it didn’t hurt enough, now his dragon had risen in his mind and berated him.  At least the heat was only now rising, but he felt it coiling within him.  Being claimed had rushed it.  He knew it was coming, for a while now, but he had thought he had more time, and when he was rescued.

Igneel had warned him.  He wouldn’t be interested in mates at all until it was time.  He’d told him that now that he was a dragon slayer, he would answer to the ways of the dragon, and he was satisfied with that.  He’d had his share of girls ask him to go out now and then, but he didn’t have interest.  Even when curled into Lucy’s bed, and sure that everyone thought they were sleeping together, it didn’t even occur to him.  In fact, until this, his body had never responded.  And the only reason this bastard could get him to respond was because he was close to mating. Otherwise, his body would not have betrayed him so.  He’d almost forgotten all this until he saw Gray again, and the heat was ignited anew.  If he hadn’t seen Gray, maybe it wouldn’t be coiling inside him, threating to overtake him right now.

A tear did escape now and he heard something, and felt a hand on his shoulder suddenly.  He would have shuddered if he could, wondering what fresh hell this was.  But his head was tilted gently up until he was looking with teary eyes at Loke.

“Natsu,” he whispered, running a hand over his face.  “Natsu, hold on, we’re coming, okay,” he whispered, looking him over.  “Gray’s coming, Natsu,” he said, and he read the sadness in the eyes.  “Natsu, he’ll claim you for his own, even now, because of now, and it will break the curse, and you can be together,” he said nodding at him.

Natsu felt his heart swell.  He would still claim him?  Even after this?  Of course, Natsu knew that he wouldn’t be like another dragon, but the dragon inside him was coming more to the forefront of thinking.  Loke stroked his hair, sitting down beside him.  “I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner,” he said.  “But we’re close now, Lucy sent me ahead to see if I could find you so we knew not to hurt you during the battle to come.  I’ve got to go back to her now, before I’m found,” he said smiling, and faded back into his gate.

Natsu swallowed, for the first time under his own power.  Would Gray really claim him?  He was so used and disgusting, undeserving a mate…

Outside, he heard an explosion, and the sound of feet running.  In the bed above him, he heard the disgusting man sit up, cussing under his breath.

“Fairy Tail,” he growled, and dressed quickly and popped out of the room.

Natsu made his eyes close and felt tears pricking again.  “Help me, Gray,” he managed to whisper, then the world faded to black from the exhaustion of the effort.

* * *


	5. Rescue

 

When the fight commenced, the whole of Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus fell on Vespus. Loke returned and told them where he’d found Natsu and that he wasn’t in a good enough condition to go through the gate safely, so they’d have to carry him out.  It was easy to find, tallest spiral tower, top room where Bladeslow slept.  Of course he’d be there, Gray thought bitterly.  He swallowed a growing lump and knew that time wasn’t on their side.

Lucy, him and Erza were running together with a larger group from Fairy Tail.  Each time they came to an enemy, the others would break off so Gray and the others could continue on to get Natsu out before anything else could happen to him.  Before long, Gray was running alone up a set of spiral stairs, everyone else fighting the guild along the way.  Finally, he reached the top and pushed open the door and scanned the dark room.  He saw nothing at first but then saw a form near the bed.

“Natsu,” he breathed and ran toward him, dropping down on his knees, hands hovering above him.  He was bleeding profusely from his back, obviously having been whipped.  His eyes stared but they were wet. 

“Natsu, we’re leaving,” he said, walking to the window and using his ice make to form a slide of sorts down to the ground. 

He yanked a sheet off the bed and wrapped it around him as he hefted him into his arms.  Still too light, still too thin, he thought.  He set foot on the ramp and controlled the decent down to the ground, running to where Porlyusica waited for them.  Gray dropped him to the mat, flipping him to show her his back.  She shook he head and began healing him quickly.  Before long, his back was healed and she splinted the broken ankle, and started to heal it.  It would take several times before that healed completely.

Gajeel came up.  “Oh, damn,” he said softly.

“What?” Gray asked. 

He looked at him.  “I don’t know what’s caused it, but he’s hit the mating already.  Maybe being forced, maybe seeing you again, something triggered it.  You need to complete it before Bladeslow can reassert control.  Or he’s lost to us…”

“But…I can’t…you mean, I should…but he…” he glanced between Porlyusica and Gajeel.  “I can’t do that to him!” he announced.  “I don’t even know if he’s chosen me for sure!  What if we’re wrong?”

Gajeel put a hand to his back.  “We’re not.  And you aren’t doing anything to him he doesn’t want.  He thinks that you’ll abandon him to his shame.  Prove you’ll accept him for what he is before it’s too late.  The spell won’t break otherwise, and then…”

Gray was never so unsure but he nodded.  “Okay, I’ll do it…”

A few spells were cast and a tent was arranged away from the dark guild into the woods a way, where he carried Natsu and laid him down on the ground.  He smiled at the still body, and ran a hand over his face.

“Natsu, I hope this is the right thing to do, but I’m willing to risk you hating me forever to get you back to me,” he said softly.

Luckily, he’d been healed completely, but he sighed, casting a charm that gave him a lubrication effect.  He looked down. After all he said, he was hard at the thought of laying with Natsu, of claiming him in all his fiery glory…  He swallowed, pulling back the sheet he’d wrapped him in.  He pulled apart the nonresponsive legs and reached down, sliding a finger inside him, and was shocked at the heat…so different from his coldness.  He knew the sooner this happened, the sooner the curse would shatter.  But he wouldn’t hurt him, not like they had.  So, he took his time, as if he had all the time in the world, and finally, when he thought him prepared, he sighed.

“I’m sorry, Natsu, that I can’t ask your permission first, I just have to hope this is what you want, if it isn’t, you can kill me, I won’t stop you…” he said softly, and closed his eyes and buried himself to the hilt into the body under him.

Gray gasped, heat searing through his body, and slowly, very slowly, he began thrusting into the body, feeling very odd since it was like fucking a doll.  Which was the idea.  But then, Natsu’s back arched slightly, and he felt his legs clench around his waist a bit.  He hoped he didn’t lose his damn head over this, but he was sure that this was worth anything, just to get Natsu back.

“Natsu, please,” he groaned out.  Suddenly he was reaching down and pulling the body up onto his lap, kneeling on the ground and hugging him to his chest fiercely, pushing deep into the warmth that seemed to melt the ice he had on his heart.

At first, it didn’t feel like anything at all, simply his cock sliding in and out of a smooth, warm channel, that while pleasurable, wasn’t anything like he wanted.  He couldn’t understand how Bladeslow could find this pleasurable.  He wanted Natsu to respond, to hug, to moan and cry out…  He held him tight, one arm holding his back, the other curled around the back of his head, pressing him into place as he felt his weight on him.  Then he heard a gasp out of him, and his chest heaved.  Gray held tighter.

“Come back to me, my dragon, come back, I’m claiming you, from now on, you belong to no one else, only me, forever me, and I’ll ease the tears, and make them all go away.  I’ll wipe away every trace of his hands and his smell off your body, Natsu, and replace it with my own, and no one will ever mistake you for belonging to anyone but me, because I’ve caught myself a dragon, and I won’t let go, no matter how you fight and snarl.  You are mine to claim, you were never his to claim…” Gray said, feeling the arms twitch around him, the muscles in his thighs trembling against his own bare legs.  “That’s it, Natsu…my Natsu…my dragon…my mate!” he groaned his release into the body in his lap, claiming him completely.

Natsu threw his head back suddenly and howled into the roof, his body going stiff for a moment as flames shot upward out of his mouth toward the top of the tent, burning the top away, leaving the sky open to them.  Gray stared up, and felt, within Natsu something shattered with a crash and a blackness spewed from his mouth, nose and eyes, exploding out in a gout of fire.  Gray’s breath caught.  His head fell back on his shoulder, and he was panting, and it was then Gray realized he was still seated in Natsu’s body, his cock already hard and twitching inside the now responsive body.

“Gray,” he moaned, gripping his hands around his neck and sniffing into his hair.  “Gray, Gray,” he muttered like a mantra as he began rocking back and forth on his now stiff cock again, his body seeking the pleasure he could only get from his mate.  “My Gray, my ice mage, my mate,” he growled, throwing his head back, his pink hair plastered to his head with sweat as he worked his body up and down on Gray’s lap now.  Gray watched with open eyes as Natsu set his feet and bucked against him hard.  Gray reached down and gripped his leaking member, stroking it several times before he began to furiously jerk his hand, sending a twist at the upstroke that made Natsu moan and growl at the same time.  He never looked more like a dragon than at that moment, eyes of fire and mouth of flame, and he came hard, his body clamping down painfully on Gray, sending him off in the same moment.  They sat there for a long moment like that, Natsu sitting on Gray’s lap, legs wrapped tightly around his waist, breathing harshly into his neck.

“Gray,” he whispered.  “Thank you…thank you…” he muttered into his neck.  “Love you so much,” he gasped.

Gray ran his hands up and down his bare back, clutching him, and realized that he was still inside him, and his cock was growing hard again.  He frowned and Natsu leaned back, pupils blown wide and black, and eyes hooded with lust, already bucking against him again.

“Natsu,” he moaned, pitching forward and pinning the dragon slayer on his back and pressing his knees to his chest before driving into him again.  “How… I’m still…”

“Mating…” Natsu breathed.  “Lasts…twelve hours…pheromones…” he moaned, arching as he hit the perfect spot inside him.  “Keep going…that long… Can you…keep up…?” he growled, yanking Gray’s head down into a fierce kiss and nipping at his lips.

Gray growled back at the taste of blood and nipped at Natsu’s neck, then bit down at the juncture of neck and shoulder.  Natsu nearly screamed as the bite sent him over the edge, marking him, claiming him fully…  It would be a long night, Gray guessed, but he was an ice mage.  He had stamina and constitution to spare.  Surely he could keep up with one horny dragonslayer for one night…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

They stumbled in together, hands entwined and looking exhausted, but they needed food, badly.  Lucy hid a smirk, as did Erza.  They’d gone to find them the night before, and ended up watching for a couple hours, entranced by the two bodies twisting and writhing with each other.  Natsu had been flushed and moaning like they’d never heard before as Gray had him every way possible, and begging him to go again seconds after they’d come down.  Natsu had said something about the mating, and they were amazed at the stamina both the males had.

They got food and sat at a table and ate, slumping next to each other.  Gajeel came in then and smirked at the pair.

“Looks like you two are fucked out,” he said, grinning.

Natsu turned pink as his hair and ducked his head.  Gray arched a brow.  “Well, hey at least I made it through all twelve hours of it, Gajeel.  Hope Levy’s up to the challenge.”

Levy had walked up.  “Twelve hours?” she exclaimed, turning to look at Gajeel.  “What does he mean, twelve hours?”

Gray grinned at her.  “Didn’t he tell you?  That’s how long he’ll be rutting.  Might get a tad sore if you aren’t up for it.”

She glared at him and grabbed him by the arm and drug him out.  Several others turned toward the new pair.  “What?” he asked.

“Eh hem, you’re telling me, you two were at it for twelve hours?” Juvia said, horrified.  “Gray-sama…I…I…” she said, running out and bursting into tears.

He shrugged and went back to his food, but found Natsu had fallen asleep against him.  He brushed a hand through his pink locks.

“I see it worked,” Makarov said with a smile.  “The mating broke the curse.”

Gray nodded.  “Yeah, though I wish I’d known I was going to be…ah tied up for that long.  Little on the, oh exhausted side.”

The guild master smirked.  “You should really look up dragon mating before you go mate with one, Gray.”

Lucy and Erza sat down opposite with a thump and Natsu jerked awake, Happy settling down on his shoulder.

“Oh, hi Lucy, Erza, Happy,” he said, yawning sleepily.

“How are you, Natsu?” Lucy asked with a smile.

“Happy,” he said, smiling and his eyes fluttering closed.

The next few months would be difficult.  Gray and Natsu stayed close to each other, neither willing to be separated from the other for any reason.  Natsu would suffer paralyzing nightmares nearly every night for the first several months afterward, and wake screaming into Gray’s chest.  Eventually, they talked through all the memories, good and bad, and there was a semblance of peace.  The only problems to be had came from Natsu’s intense fear of being bound in any fashion.  Being gripped too tightly, or anyone attempting to restrain him got a violent response.  Only Gray could get close to him, and though he hugged his close friends, anyone else, he didn’t have touch him.  It was a select few that could hold the dragon slayer.  In time, he returned to himself mostly, but there were always nightmares, but there was also Gray right there to soothe them away.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap unless I come back and fluff the chapters (which I may do so!) But for now, this is where I wanted the story to go. I may add more fight details and such, but in the end, it was about Gray rescuing Natsu.


End file.
